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Do Gen X Women Choose Work Over Kids?

Teaser:

Nearly half (43 percent) of college-educated Generation X women — those currently between the ages of 33 and 46 — are childless, a new study finds, and the statistic is likely to lead to a new wave of wondering why women still feel they have to choose between families and careers.

Editorial:

From the New York Times:

Nearly half (43 percent) of college-educated Generation X women — those currently between the ages of 33 and 46 — are childless, a new study finds, and the statistic is likely to lead to a new wave of wondering why women still feel they have to choose between families and careers.

Three-quarters of these childless women are in established relationships, which means that the fact that they are not parents is probably not for want of a partner.

The data are part of an analysis by the Center for Work-Life Policy that is not scheduled to be released until the end of July, but The Sunday Times of London “jumped the embargo,” says the center’s director, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, and the striking number has been picked up by newspapers and Web sites over the past few days.

Lauren Leader-Chivee surveyed 3,000 male and female graduates in America and conducted supplementary interviews there and in Britain: “We have found very similar trends in both countries,” she said.

Previous studies in Britain have only hinted at similar trends. For instance, in 2007 a study by the Institute of Education at the University of London tracked 5,000 women born in 1970 and discovered 40% of British women graduates were still childless at 35.

By contrast, among female graduates born in 1958 32.7% were childless at 35.

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Women born in Generation X had mothers who wanted their daughters to aim high, inspired by the feminist revolution and the possibility of entering previously male-only professions.

Leader-Chivee says this age group has also experienced being laid off, as in years when boom has turned into bust. This has made them flexible and career-focused; 91% of the women in relationships are part of dual earning couples, and 19% out-earn their husbands. Similarly, 74% consider themselves ambitious, compared to 65% of women from the baby-boom generation. They start their own businesses at three times the rate boomers did at their age.